Seriously though I mean this in a good way. Remember how ‘big’ Flash intro pages were about 10 years ago? Then everyone realized that after coming to the website more than 2 times the sexy/cute Flash intro became really annoying. Today I talk about how Mobile Apps can replace that sexy/cute branding image you wanted with a Flash Intro.
Marketers in general are a fun bunch, but a lot of the time they take their work way to seriously. I suggest relaxing and making your marketing fun so that you can find new ways of attracting customers. Let me know what you think.
WordPress is the Content Management Solution of choice today and is what I recommend all of my clients use. This is because it is Open Source, has a huge userbase, and is highly customizable. Today I wanted to review a few PlugIns that are SEO focused. These plugins are very easy to setup but you can also dive head first into them for lots of customization. Using these plugins will help your site show up for the keywords you want and get you more traffic.
All in One SEO – This is the granddaddy of SEO Plugins for WordPress. It covers getting your META tags setup for every Page and Post on your site. In the main setup area you will be able to set the META tags for your home page and then make selections for how it handles your Pages and Posts. When you create a new Page or Post or edit an existing one you are also presented with options for setting the META tags for those pages. It adds a little more time to your Post and Page creation but this time is totally worth it in the long run. There is a paid version as well.
Permalink Finder – We have all run into them before and they can ruin our image of a website in 2 seconds flat, no I am not talking about banner pop ups, I am talking about 404′s. A 404 shows up when the page someone is looking for no longer exists. The Permalink Finder plug in solves this issue by redirecting to either a Post or Page with similar keywords, or to the blogs homepage. There is a settings page once installed and you should review it to make sure it doesn’t do anything you won’t like. This also solves issues when the search engine bots are following old links that no longer have pages at the other end, now they are redirected and you keep the link juice!
SEO Slugs – Once you start using WordPress one of the first things you need to update is how it creates Permalinks. By default they look like this http://arizonaseo.com/?p=123 which is a dynamic page and will have a lower chance of being indexed by Google. Instead you want to set it to either “Day & Name” or “Month & Name” so that each new Page and Post will create a ‘Slug’. Slugs are basically the title of the post with hyphens(-) instead of spaces( ). The SEO Slugs Plugin will also remove common words from the slug like ‘a’, ‘it’, ‘the’, etc. This will help the search engines identify what your post is about that much faster, and speed is the name of the game. There are no settings for this plugin, once you have it installed it just does its job.
SEO Smart Links – In the SEO world links are a major focus. There are two types of links: external and internal. While external links get most of the attention it is critical that you are also linking internally. The Navigation bar covers a lot of this but you should also be linking from within your posts to your other posts. The SEO Smart Links plugin helps you automate this by looking at your post’s keywords and linking them to other posts that share that keyword. Once you install the plugin be sure to go to the settings page and make adjustments as you like. Be sure to review the results each time and correct anything that just doesn’t make sense.
Keep in mind this is a pretty short list of all the SEO related plugins for WordPress. I may have missed your favorite. If so please let me know.
A lot of people are help up on their content marketing efforts because they don’t like to write. To that I say get on video or audio and let it rip. Find the medium you are comfortable with and get going. In todays video I talk about finding that medium and making it happen.
I am going to keep making videos for these posts as they are fun and I hope useful. Today I am talking about content creation and the concept of Give to Get. If you want your blogs to produce clients then you need to create material that gives the users something. This shows you have expertise and an answer to their problem, which will result in them calling you for your services.
I have been involved in Search Engine Optimization for over 10 years now and one concept that clients continue to struggle with is that Search Engines and the Web are in a constant state of change. Instead of this view most clients look at SEO work as the same that they used to look at the Yellow Pages where they paid a rate and their advertisement showed up on its page.
A shift in thinking needs to occur here for a few reasons:
Ranking on the first page today does not guarantee tomorrow
What customers look for today will not be what they look for tomorrow
Competitors can copy what you have done
No More Guarantees
Remember when you were a kid and your parents or some adult told you that there were only two guarantees in life? Well Death and Taxes are pretty much still the only guarantees. No one offering Search Engine Optimization services should ever guarantee you a first page ranking and once there you should not expect it to stay there. On the first point it is impossible for anyone who doesn’t work for Google or Bing to tell you that they can guarantee how those services work and apply techniques to your website to effect those changes. That is what Pay Per Click is for. Second expecting what worked yesterday to give you the same results today is a sign of madness. Everyday is new and different and you have to be prepared to change.
Web Searches and Consistancy
Ask yourself this question: How many times do you search for the same phrase more than once? For the majority of people the answer is Zero. This is because once we search on something we have answered that question and we move onto the next task. Your customers do the same thing. Researching what else they might search for that applies to your services will help you get repeat business. This might involve creating a new page or a new website.
Competitors are Watching
Competitive research is a cornerstone of any well written business plan or marketing plan. In terms of search this includes looking at what a competitor has for backlinks, content matter, META tags, etc. If your SEO consultant isn’t talking with you about your competitors then you should look for a new one.
Based on this you can bet that your competition is doing the same thing. This means that you need to adapt and modify your techniques to stay ahead of them. If you have hired a good SEO Consultant they may be able to help you maintain this edge at a reduced cost of the initial work. However if you are in a competitive landscape then you might experience a competitor putting a lot of effort into unseating you from the top spot. The more you are prepared for this reality the calmer you will be when these discussions need to happen.
Today I want to talk about Content Optimization which is a fancy way of talking about cutting out the crap or getting to the point. Have a look at the video and buy The Elements of Style.
